USA > Indiana > A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 > Part 25
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
1822, sold the seminary lands in Gibson county, belonging to Vincennes University, and turned the proceeds over to , the new State Seminary.
In 1828 the State Seminary became Indiana College, under a board of fifteen trustees. In 1838 Indiana College became Indiana University. Its history for a half century is a continuous struggle for money, and students, to keep it alive. Its graduating classes before the Civil War rarely numbered a dozen and more often fell below a half dozen. The torch of learning was kept burning, however, and that is more than was done in neighboring States.39
The intense religious feeling of the times interfered with any united effort in higher education. Hardly had the State University been organized when a clerical quarrel began over its control. This was most unfortunate for the uni- versity. Feeling that they were not fairly represented on the board or the faculty of the State University, the Metho- dists withdrew their support and by 1840 Indiana Asbury University was open for students.40
The Baptists, as early as 1834, began an agitation for a college under their own control. As a result of this Frank- lin College was located in 1835. In its early years it passed through much of the same vicissitudes as the other Indiana pioneer schools.41
The Presbyterians of Salem Presbytery, as early as 1825, took up the matter of establishing an academy. John Finley Crow was then maintaining a boarding school at South Hanover. In 1826 the presbytery arranged with Mr. Crow to enlarge his school, as soon as possible, into a classi-
loquies of Corderius; Testament; Selectae e Verteri; Graeca Minora; Selectae e Profanis; Caesar; Virgil. Must have no ponies. Trustees, Joshua O. Howe, Samuel Dodds. John Ketcham, William Lowe, Jona- than Nichols, D. H. Maxwell. Cf. Baynard R. Hall, The New Purchase.
39 T. A. Wylie, Indiana University, 1890; Indiana Alumni Quarterly, I.
40 F. C. Holliday, Indiana Methodism, 317. The Methodists estab- lished the New Albany Seminary in 1837; Whitewater College, at Cen- terville; Fort Wayne College, 1846; Brookville College, 1851; Moore's Hill College, 1853.
41 William T. Stott, Indiana Baptist History, 346; see also a His- tory of Franklin College.
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cal school where boys and young men might prepare for college, and thus for the ministry. This school was formal- ly opened in a log house January 1, 1827. The usual strug- gle followed. Like its predecessor at Bloomington, about all that can be said of it during the next quarter of a century is that it survived.42
The Catholics were the earliest and also the latest to found denominational colleges in this period. The institu- tions at Vincennes date back to the early years of the State's history but none of them ever gave promise of becoming a first class college or university. Father Sorin, a member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross of Mans, France, understook to supply the needs of the northwestern Catho- lics in this respect. He reported to Bishop Hailandiére, of Vincennes, as a missionary in 1841. His first work was at St. Peters, a small missionary station in Daviess county. Here the college would have been located had it not been for the college at Vincennes. At the suggestion of Hailan- diére, the little band from Daviess county repaired to the present site of Notre Dame du Lac, on the banks of the St. Joseph, and there, in the winter of 1842 and 1843, was founded the present college.43
There is no intention here of attempting a history of any of these colleges. The purpose is to illustrate the effort of the pioneers of Indiana to solve the problem of education after the State had failed. Had the State University been properly supported, and had it freed itself from the re- proach of sectarianism earlier, it is conceivable that it might have gathered together all these factors and welded them into a large and prosperous school. More probably the day of the great State university had not yet come.
Between these extremes, the college and the common school, there was no direct connection. Effort was made, however, both by public and private means, to bridge over this gap in the imaginary school system of Indiana. Be-
42 Hanford A. Edson, Early Indiana Presbyterianism, 228; see also History of Hanover College.
43 A Brief History of the University of Notre Dame du Lac, 1895.
(20)
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
ginning with the constitution itself,44 which provided for a system of intermediate schools, and extending through a series of statutes down till 1840, the State tried to estab- lish seminaries in each county. Besides the general laws, which authorized any county under certain conditions to establish a seminary, thirty-two special laws incorporated as many county seminaries between 1825 and 1843. Two sources of revenue were provided. All fines for breaches of the penal laws went to the seminary fund. The other source was private donations. Under the general law of 1831 no county could establish a seminary until it had a fund of $400.
There was no uniformity in the management, course of study, length of term, method of instruction, text books, or any other material consideration connected with these sem- inaries. Like the common schools, while most of the sem- inaries were of no value, some rendered long and meritor- ious service to the community. Lack of friends, dishonest trustees and factional quarrels make up the burden of their history.45
The practice of medicine was considered a fit subject for legislation by the First General Assembly of the State. The circuit court districts were made medical districts, in each of which a board of censors was named. This board had power to examine and license any prospective physician it deemed well enough skilled to undertake the active practice. The usual way of preparing for these examinations was by "reading" medicine with some doctor, preferably a member of the board of censors, for a number of years. Persons refused a license were not thereby refused the right to prac- tice but such persons were unable to collect their fees by law. Each board had to report annually to the president of the State Senate.
A significant provision of this law forbade any physi- cian charging a patient more than twelve and one-half cents
44 Constitution of 1816, Art. X, sec. 3.
45 A seminary paper by Walter Jackson Wakefield is the best study that has been made of these schools.
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per mile for the distance necessarily traveled. This fee might be doubled if the trip were made at night.46
The General Assembly of 1825 revised the law concern- ing medical societies, establishing the State Medical Society, composed of delegates from each district society. The dis- trict censors still retained the right to license candidates, but if a candidate were refused he had the privilege of ap- pealing to the State society. The latter body was also di- rected to establish a "Uniform system of the course and time of medical study, and the qualifications necessary for license."47 In its general features this law remained until 1843, when it was omitted from the Revision of that year.48
46 Laws of Indiana, 1816, 161.
47 Laws of Indiana, 1825, 40.
48 W. A. Rawles, Centralizing Tendencies in the Administration of Indiana, 234.
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CHAPTER XIII
POLITICS FROM 1825 TO 1840
§ 57 THE JACKSONIAN PARTY
FROM the beginning of the territorial government, in 1800, there had been more or less political rivalry between the eastern and western settlers. It was first noticeable be- tween the settlers of Vincennes and those of Clark's Grant. Later it appeared between the settlers of the Whitewater Valley and those of the Wabash. With the adoption of the constitution in 1816 this rivalry began to disappear. A part of that hostility had been due to the belief by the eastern settlers that the territorial officers at Vincennes had too much authority. After Jonathan Jennings, of Clark coun- ty, became governor, William Hendricks, of Jefferson, con- gressman, and James Noble, of Franklin, senator, a similar complaint was heard from Vincennes. It was charged that everything was decided by a caucus of office holders at Corydon or Indianapolis.
By 1824 the old Congressional Caucus at Washington was regarded with suspicion by the western democrats. The methods of Governor Jennings and his followers were said to be very much like those at Washington.1
It was customary at this time for a number of leading members of the General Assembly, together with the gov- ernor and a few other State officers, to meet about the close of the annual legislative session and lay their political plans for the coming year. At a meeting of this kind Adams presidential electors had been chosen early in the year 1824. The electors were the three judges of the supreme court, the ex-lieutenant governor, and the Speaker of the House
1 Western Sun, Mar. 29, 1817.
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of Representatives, all members of the officeholding aris- tocracy, as was charged at the time.
Along with the opposition to the caucus the question of the relation of a representative to his constituents was widely discussed. The same party that opposed the cau- cus demanded that the representatives either in Congress or the General Assembly should vote as his constituents wished him to, and not as he thought individually. If unable to carry out the will of his supporters, the representatives should resign. This was called the "right of instruction."2
Another source of political unrest was the growing be- lief among the farmers that a class of professional office- holders was in charge of the State government. There was considerable ground for the charge. The men who made the constitution administered it until about 1829, when the Jacksonian Revolution turned them out.3
The same class of farmers that opposed the office-hold- ers in the caucus opposed the banks. The failure of the First State Bank strengthened this party materially. Those farmers and merchants able to load a flatboat for the down river trade were now frequently called the traders. In their
2 In Nov., 1820, Enoch D. John and Joseph Hanna, members elect from Franklin county to the General Assembly, sent out a hand bill calling their constituents into convention for the purpose of framing instructions to guide their course in the Assembly soon to meet. The editor of the Vincennes Centincl, a government organ, remarked editor- ially : "We do not think highly of this mode of legislation. If members are not fit for their station all the wit of their constituents cannot make them so, in so short a time. We might as well send our instructions on pack horses."
3 Western Sun, March 29, 1817. Sixteen out of the forty-two mem- bers of the constitutional convention returned to the first session of the legislature. At least six more immediately accepted some office under the constitution. All told, the members sat for a total of 154 terms. making an average, not counting those in administrative offices, of about four years' service in the General Assembly for each member. Consid- ering 36, the number of members of the first session, to have remained the size of the Assembly, there would have been an average attendance by the members of the convention of seventeen members, almost a ma- jority. Add to these the terms served by the members as governors, con- gressmen, senators, judges, and in the national service and one begins to realize that the offices were fairly monopolized by a small group of politicians. It is clearly not too much to say that they ruled the State during the period of 1816 to 1824.
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homes there were some evidences of luxury brought from New Orleans. The poorer class of farmers were often called "yeomanry," a term they disliked at first, but one they be- came proud of under Jackson.
The followers of Jackson were handicapped by lack of leaders, and means to carry on a campagin. Scarcely a member of the party held office.
The election of John Q. Adams by the House of Repre- sentatives welded the dissatisfied democrats of Indiana into the Jacksonian Democratic Party. There was a fierceness in their resentment of the treatment of Jackson which was little short of warlike. They referred to the election of Adams as "the theft of the presidency." All believed that Clay had sold his influence to Adams for the appointment as Secretary of State, a bargain and sale of the government which they thought far more dangerous than Burr's Con- spiracy.4
As soon as the election of Adams was known in Indiana a real political party began to take form. At log-rollings, boat-loadings, and above all on muster days the agitation was kept up. Viewed in all lights and from any angle, Jack- son appeared to them their natural leader. He was a west- ern man, a pioneer democrat. Unlike Clay, he had refused to affiliate with the aristocratic congressmen from the east. The Indians were the greatest menace to the pioneer. He had driven them beyond the Mississippi. The English were the only national enemy. At New Orleans he had defeated their finest army, with the untrained battalions of pioneer militia. In all his successes he had preserved his sincerity and his modesty. In this he was held up as a contrast to Clay, the modern Esau. The Democratic campaign was pitched on a high plane. The nation was in danger of mon- archy, the west was entitled to a share in the government, the common man must assert his rights and, most important of all, Jackson must be vindicated. These were the planks of the platform.
Like skillful soldiers, the Jacksonians began the battle by attacking and taking the outposts of the enemy, the
4 Western Sun, April 2, 1825.
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township, county and militia offices. These were largely in the hands of the Jacksonians by 1828. By that time also a county and township political organization had been com- pleted. Seeing the drift of public opinion, one newspaper after another became Jacksonian.5
Jackson had been nominated by the legislature of Ten- nessee in 1825; so that it was not necessary to hold a State convention in Indiana except to nominate electors. This convention, the second in the history of the State, was held at Indianapolis January 8, 1828.6 Regularly chosen dele- gates, thirty-seven in number, representing twenty coun- ties, were present. Nine members of the General Assem- bly, for counties not otherwise represented, were also made members.
The significant thing about this convention was the po- litical organization it perfected. Beginning with the town- ship, it provided that the lister (our assessor) of property, when he made his annual visit in the spring, should note the political preference of each voter. This poll book was then turned over to the Vigilance Committee (our precinct committeemen), who reported the voters to the County Committee of Correspondence. The Committee of Vigilance divided the voters of the township into groups, and mem- bers of the committee visited each voter personally. The Vigilance Committee also raised funds, furnished tickets to the voters on election day, arranged for stump speakings, and on election day attended the polls. The Committee of Correspondence resembled our county Central Committee and looked after county politics. It also communicated with the Committee of General Superintendence, our State Cen- tral Committee.7 This convention adopted a platform fa-
5 Western Sun, Feb. 17, 1827. "The friends of General Jackson will be pleased to note that the cause is gaining strength in the State. With- in a few days the Palladium ( Lawrenceburg), the Guest (of Vevay) and the Annotator (Salem) have come out for him.
6 Western Sun, Jan. 26, 1828; Indiana Journal, Jan. 9, 1828.
7 Indiana State Journal, Jan. 9, 1828. The State Committee consisted of R. C. Newland, Eli W. Malott, John McMahan, Henry S. Handy. all of Washington county ; Gen. John Carr, of Clark; William Hoggatt, of Orange; William Marshall, of Jackson: A. S. Burnett, of Floyd; John Milroy, of Lawrence; Nelson Lodge, of Jefferson; Elihu Stout, of Knox;
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
voring democracy as against Federalism, the American sys- tem of government as against the English, and the respon- sibility of public offices to the people. With this platform and this organization the Jacksonian party entered the campaign of 1828 to vindicate Jackson and reclaim the lib- erties to the people.
It was this superb party organization that enabled the Jacksonian Democrats to carry nearly all the presidential elections in Indiana, though the State, on national issues was opposed to them.
Opposed to the Jacksonians were the Adams and Clay men, who called themselves National or Jeffersonian Repub- licans. This party contained nearly all the experienced pol- iticians of the State, though it must be kept in mind that political lines were not so clear and strong as at present. Senator John Tipton was an influential politician of this period though it could hardly be said he belonged to either party. The same was true of Governors Jennings and Noble.
The Adams, or Administration, men held their State convention at Indianapolis, January 12, 1828.8 Of the fifty- seven delegates present all seem to have been office-holders and most of them were members of the General Assembly then in session. Forty-one of the fifty-six counties of the State were represented. In looking over the list of dele- gates it would seem that all the leading men of the State belonged to this party. Such was the fact. State officers and men of State reputation belonged to this party, while county and township officers belonged to the other.
The organization of the Clay-Adams Party was never close and complete like that of its opponent. It depended for success on the dignity of its members, the appeal of its platform, and the oratory of its stump speakers. In these latter two points it surpassed the Jacksonians. It was the champion of the tariff, internal improvements, and the
William C. Keen, of Switzerland; Jacob B. Lowe, of Monroe; David V. Culley, of Dearborn; Thomas Posey, of Harrison. At least six of these were editors.
8 Indiana Journal, Jan. 31, 1828.
POLITICS
301
All the northern part of the state still owned by Indians
Miami Reservation
Randolph
Wabash ist. 1
2nd.
3rd.
Henry
Parke
Marion
Rush
Vigo
Putnam
Morgan
Johnson Shelby
Fayette
Union
Franklin
Decatur
Owen
Bartholomew
Monroe
Sullivan
Ripley
Greene
Jennings
Jackson
Lawrence
Switzer- land
Daviess
Knox
tin
Scott
Washington
Orange
Clark.
Pike
Dubois
Crawford
Floyd
Van- der- burg
Warrick
Perry
Harrison
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS established by the act
Posey
Spencer
Of January 3, 1822
INDIANA IN 1822. BY E. V. SHOCKLEY.
Dearborn
lax
Jefferson
Gibson
Delaware
Wayne
302
HISTORY OF INDIANA
bank, all of which were favored issues among the early In- diana voters. The stump speakers of this party were elo- quent, and could hold their "large and respectable aud- iences" for three or four hours at a time discussing the is- sues.
These parties have been described in some detail for the reason that they continued without change to divide the voters of Indiana down until the slavery issue broke them up. The Jackson men stood for a wider democracy, a more universal participation in the government by the common people. They demanded a firmer control over their law- makers, a government more responsive to public opinion. They insisted on instructing their representatives and re- quired them to resign or carry out the instructions. They insisted on the government keeping out of business so far as possible, and not interfering with the affairs of the citi- zens.
The Adams men believed in a representative govern- ment, in which the representative was left to his own in- dividual opinion as the guide to his political conduct. It was the duty of the voters to elect superior men to office and it was the duty of the latter to govern with justice and foresight. The clashings of these two sets of opinions, varied with endless personalities, made up the warp and woof of Indiana politics before the Civil War.
Under the old constitution the State elections were held on the first Monday in August. The governor served a term of three years, so that 1828 was the first time since 1816, when there was a State and national election the same year. Governor Ray, who had been elected in 1825 on an internal improvement platform, was a candidate for re- election.9 In the organization of parties he had refused to take sides. He believed national politics should have no place in a State election. On this platform he had been
9 James Brown Ray was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, Feb. 19, 1794. He studied law at Cincinnati and settled down to practice at Brookville. He had served one term in the house and two terms in the senate. He was a firm believer in the railroad and his favorite vision was Indianapolis with railroads radiating from it like spokes from a hub. He died of cholera at Cincinnati in 1848.
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POLITICS
elected in 1825 over Judge Isaac Blackford. He attempted to repeat the same tactics in 1828, but party lines were more closely drawn and it was decided by both parties to nominate opposing partisan candidates. This movement alarmed Governor Ray so much that he made a private agreement with the Jackson men that as soon as the elec- tion was over he would come out frankly for Jackson, stat- ing publicly that Jackson's letter in answer to an inquiry by the General Assembly had assured him that the Jackson men were all right on the tariff and internal improve- ments.10
Everything seemed to be sailing on smooth seas until the governor, in a speech at Brookville, where his neighbors were nearly all Adams men, severely denounced the Jackson men as a faction not fit to be entrusted with power. This was reported to the State chairman, Henry S. Handy, of Salem, who laid the whole agreement before the Jackson committee. The Jackson men promptly disavowed the gov- ernor and nominated Dr. I. T. Canby, of Madison, for gov- ernor. The newspapers ridiculed the governor, making his position almost unbearable. 11 The election was so near at hand, however, that only a comparatively few voters learned of the double dealing, and the governor was re-elected by a substantial plurality over Dr. Canby and Harbin Moore, the Adams candidate.12 In the following presidential elec- tion, November, 1828, Jackson carried the State by a heavy majority.
As soon as Jackson was inaugurated a reign of terror began among Indiana politicians such as has never been ex- perienced before or since. The execution of office-holders began with the postmasters. It is doubtful if a single
10 Indiana Journal, April 3, 1828. This issue of the paper has a copy of the joint resolution, Ray's four column letter to Jackson, and Jackson's answer. Also the famous Coleman letter of Jackson on the tariff.
11 Indiana Journal, July 10 and July 17, 1828, contains all the ma- terials on this matter; see Western Sun. July 19, 1828: Indiana Palla- dium, July 19, 1828.
12 The vote was: Ray, 15,141; Canby, 12.305; Moore, 10,004. In- diana Palladium, Dec. 13, 1828.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
Adams man was left in a single office in Indiana. The United States marshals, district attorneys, registers and receivers of land offices, superintendents and bosses on the National Road, Indian agents, revenue collectors, and post- masters were all removed. Some of the postmasters re- ceived less than $5 per year, but they had to stand aside nevertheless. Every Jackson man appointed had been ac- tive in the campaign, so that the Jacksonian political or- ganization was composed for the next twenty years of the federal office-holders of the State.
The people in general rather feared the result of the wholesale change, but it seems that the new officers were at least as capable as the old, and far more courteous. The ex- perience confirmed the Jacksonian pioneers in their opinion that office holding was not a business that required either extraordinary talents or blue blood.13
§ 58 THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS PARTY
IN local politics the Internal Improvements Party con- trolled the State by an overwhelming majority. This party was not unevenly divided between the Jackson and Adams men. Two of its most prominent leaders were Samuel Judah of Vincennes, who wrote the Jackson platforms in 1824 and in 1828, and Noah Noble, the successful candidate for governor in 1831 and in 1834. It was charged that he had voted for Jackson. National politics, at least, did not control State elections as at present. In or- ganizing the General Assembly in 1829 J. F. D. Lanier, later the distinguished Whig banker of Madison, was made principal clerk unanimously, while Edward A. Hannegan, later the eloquent Democratic senator, was chosen enroll- ing clerk.14
The campaign for the governorship in 1831 was between Noah Noble and James G. Read, the former being success- ful by 2,791 majority.15 Very little interest was taken in
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